Our hearts and gratitude go out to “Nick” and Jack Curran for so courageously sharing the devastating impact ketamine has had on their lives (The agony of ketamine addiction: ‘I felt like I was peeing glass’, November 5 ). Their stories poignantly illustrate the unexpected crisis unfolding in urology clinics nationwide as more and more young adults develop bladder problems related to their recreational use of the drug.
Last month, Jasmine King, a nurse specialist in urology at North Bristol NHS Trust, discussed this growing problem during an insights webinar held by the Urostomy Association to mark World Stoma Day. She pointed out that we need to raise awareness not only among young people, as Elle Hunt’s article explores, but also among health professionals, as the symptoms of recreational ketamine use are not always recognized by GPs and nurses.
In younger patients, symptoms such as increased urination are often misinterpreted as an infection or interstitial cystitis. They are then treated with numerous courses of antibiotics before being referred to urology specialists. But by that point, many will have crossed a threshold and done themselves significant and irreversible damage. At this stage, life-changing surgery becomes the last option and young patients are faced with living with a urostomy bag (not a colostomy bag as your article said; colostomy bags collect poop).
The multidisciplinary team in Bristol is doing exemplary collaborative work to support young drug users to reduce bladder damage. But a national approach is needed so that best practice can be shared to ensure that more young lives are not destroyed as their adult selves begin to unfold. Thank you, Elle Hunt and the Guardian, for helping to foster that dialogue.
You can view a blog post by Jasmine King on the Urostomy Association website detailing her presentation at urostomyassociation.org.uk/blog.
Samantha Sherratt
Transformation director, Urostomy Association
As a specialist nurse in a drug and alcohol service for young people, I am not surprised by your article. When I was working back home ten years ago, ketamine became a major problem among under-18s. Its use started to become more and more common, and bladder problems even occurred in our client group. At the time, its use became particularly popular in more affluent areas, where drug use other than cannabis was generally less common than in large urban areas. Our users saw it as a recreational drug for weekend use.
An opportunity was missed as ketamine was deemed less dangerous than heroin or cocaine by Public Health England, who seemed to ignore our concerns and ultimately closed our specialist service and transferred it to adult services, whose way of working was heavily affected by heroin and users crack.
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My daughter took her own life after several years of ketamine addiction, and I recognize the picture painted by the young man in your article. Drug and alcohol services are not equipped to manage this relatively new addiction. For young people with depression, autism and eating disorders, it is the perfect medicine, offering dissociation, trippiness and calmness in a cheap drug without the hangover. As our youth wait months for mental health support, it becomes their “little helper,” and by the time the mental health system picks them up, they are addicted.
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